Tokenisation for card transactions (GS Paper 3, Economy)
Why in news?
- The Reserve Bank of India’slaunched card-on-file (CoF) tokenisation norms from October 1, which aim at improved safety and security of card transactions.
- Now, for any purchases done online or through mobile apps, merchants, payment aggregators and payment gateways will not be able to save crucial customer credit and debit card details such as three-digit CVV and expiry date.
What is tokenisation?
- Tokenisation refers to the replacement of actual card details with a unique alternate code called the ‘token’, which shall be unique for a combination of card, token requester, (i.e. the entity which accepts requests from the customer for tokenisation of a card and passes it on to the card network to issue a corresponding token) and the device.
How did India decide to carry out tokenisation?
- In September 2021, the RBI prohibited merchants from storing customer card details on their servers with effect from January 1, 2022, and mandated the adoption of card-on-file (CoF) tokenisation as an alternative.
- Following a series of representations from several industry players and digital payment platforms who anticipated disruption in online transactions from January 1, 2022, the RBI extended the implementation date of card-on-file (CoF) tokenisation norms by another six months to June 30, 2022.Subsequently, the deadline was extended till September 30, 2022.
But how will tokenisation work?
- A debit or credit card holder can get the card tokenised by initiating a request on the app provided by the token requester.
- The token requester will forward the request to the card network which, with the consent of the card issuer, will issue a token corresponding to the combination of the card, the token requester, and the device.
- The customer will not be charged for availing the tokenisation service.
- Earlier, the facility for card tokenisation was available only for mobile phones and tablets of interested card holders. Subsequently, with an uptick in tokenisation volume, the RBI decided to extend the scope of tokenisation to include consumer devices – laptops, desktops, wearables (wrist watches, bands, etc.) and Internet of Things (IoT) devices.
Who can offer tokenisation services?
- Tokenisation can be performed only by the authorised card network and recovery of original Primary Account Number (PAN) should be feasible for the authorised card network only.
- Adequate safeguards have to be put in place to ensure that PAN cannot be found out from the token and vice versa, by anyone except the card network.
- RBI has emphasised that the integrity of the token generation process has to be ensured at all times.
What do customers gain from tokenisation?
- A tokenised card transaction is considered safer as the actual card details are not shared with the merchant during transaction processing. Actual card data, token and other relevant details are stored in a secure mode by the authorised card networks.
- The token requestor cannot store Primary Account Number (PAN), or any other card details.
- Card networks are also mandated to get the token requester certified for safety and security that conform to international best practices/globally accepted standards.
QR codes to soon be printed on medicines to check for their authenticity
(GS Paper 2, Governance)
Why in news?
- To prevent the use of counterfeit and substandard medicines, the government may soon launch a ‘track and trace’ mechanism.
- Under this, the customers will be allowed to use QR codes to know if the pills they are popping are authentic or not.
Phase I:
- Under the first phase of the exercise, QR codes will be printed on the primary packaging labels. Primary packaging labels are the first-level packaging like the bottle, can, jar, tube or strip.
- In the first phase, medicines costing over Rs 100 per strip may be included.
Why this move?
- Of late, there have been several reports of counterfeit drugs in the market. A racket of Glenmark's pill for blood pressure, Telma-H, was busted at Baddi.
- According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), in low and middle-income countries about 10 per cent of medical products are substandard.
- In March, the Health Ministry had asked the department of pharmaceuticals (DoP) to shortlist 300 drug brands that can be included for implementation of mandatory QR codes.
- The National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA) had identified the list of 300 drugs, which include widely used medicines, such as painkillers, contraceptives, vitamins, blood-sugar, and hypertension medicines.
What is QR Code?
- AQR Code is a graphical representation of digital data that can be printed and scanned by a smartphone or other device.
- The data in a QR code is a series of dots in a square grid. Each dot represents a one and each blank a zero in binary code, and the patterns encode sets of numbers, letters or both, including URLs. At its smallest this grid is 21 rows by 21 columns, and at its largest it is 177 rows by 177 columns
- In most cases, QR codes use black squares on a white background, making the dots easy to distinguish. However, this is not a strict requirement, and QR codes can use any colour or shape for the dots and background.
How does it work?
- Position markers are squares placed in a QR code’s top-left, top-right, and bottom-left corners. These markers let a smartphone camera or other device orient the QR code when scanning it.
- QR codes are surrounded by blank space, the quiet zone, to help the computer determine where the QR code begins and ends. QR codes can include an optional logo in the middle.
- When user scan a QR Code, the QR reader in user’s phone camera deciphers the code, and the resulting information triggers an action on your phone.
- If the QR code holds a URL, the phone will present user with the URL.
Origins of QR Code:
- QR Codes actually began as Bar Codes to be used at supermarkets.
- Bar Codes work by encoding alphanumeric data as a series of black and white lines of various widths.
- They record a set of numbers that specify a product’s ID. Data stored in Bar Codes is redundant. Even if part of the Bar Code is destroyed or obscured, it is still possible for a device to read the product ID.
- The first QR Code system was invented in 1994 by the Japanese company and Toyota subsidiary Denso Wave. This was done as they needed a more accurate way to track vehicles and parts during the manufacturing process.
Way Forward:
- With the implementation, the costs are expected to go up by 3-4 per cent for the phone makers.
- Along with the QR code, the government may also soon launch a portal where the customers can feed the unique ID of the medicines and check for their authenticity.
- Gradually, it may be expanded to other pharma products and handheld devices.
Indias maiden Mars mission runs out of fuel
(GS Paper 3, Science and Tech)
Why in news?
- India’s Mars Orbiter craft has run out of propellant and its battery drained beyond the safe limit, fuelling speculation that India’s maiden interplanetary mission ‘Mangalyaan’ may has finally completed its long innings.
About Mangalyaan:
- The Rs 450 crore Mars Orbiter Mission was launched onboard PSLV-C25 on 5 November 2013.
- Mangalyaan was India's first interplanetary mission. The indigenously-built space probe has been in the Martian orbit since September 24, 2014.
- The mission made India the first Asian country, and the fourth in the world after Roscosmos, NASA, and the European Space Agency, to get to the planet.
- China referred to India's successful Mangalyaan as the "Pride of Asia".
Instruments:
- The MOM — a technology demonstration venture — carried five scientific payloads (total 15 kg) collecting data on surface geology, morphology, atmospheric processes, surface temperature and atmospheric escape process.
- The five instruments are: Mars Color Camera (MCC), Thermal Infrared Imaging Spectrometer (TIS), Methane Sensor for Mars (MSM), Mars Exospheric Neutral Composition Analyser (MENCA) and Lyman Alpha Photometer (LAP).
- MOM is credited with many laurels like cost-effectiveness, short period of realisation, economical mass-budget, and miniaturisation of five heterogeneous science payloads.
- Highly elliptical orbit geometry of MOM enabled MCC to take snap shots of ‘Full disc’ of Mars at its farthest point and finer details from closest point.
- The MCC has produced more than 1000 images and published a Mars Atlas.
What was the objective of Mangalyaan?
- India's Mangalyaan mission is aimed at studying Martian atmosphere.
- Its objective is to explore Martian surface features, mineralogy, morphology and atmosphere using indigenous scientific instruments.
- A crucial objective of MOM was to develop technologies required in planning, designing, management and operations of an interplanetary mission.
Tenure:
- Recently there were back-to-back eclipses including one that lasted seven-and-half hours. As the satellite battery is designed to handle an eclipse duration of only about one hour and 40 minutes, a longer eclipse would drain the battery beyond the safe limit.
- The mission had already exceeded expectations as it remained operational for over eight years when it was designed for a six-month-long mission around Martian orbit.
What’s next?
- Meanwhile, plans for a follow-on ‘Mangalyaan’ mission to the Mars are yet to be firmed up.
- ISRO came out with an ‘Announcement of Opportunity’ (AO) for the future Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM-2) in 2016 but officials acknowledged that it’s still on the drawing board, with the coming ‘Gaganyaan’, ‘Chandrayaan-3’ and ‘Aditya – L1’ projects being in the space agency’s current priority list.
Nord Stream pipeline leaks
(GS Paper 2, International Relation)
Why in news?
- Recently, four leaks were reported at different points in the Nord Stream pipelines linking Russia and Europe. Three of the leaks were in Swedish waters while the other two were reported from Danish waters.
- While the EU promised a “robust” response to any international disruption to its energy infrastructure, Russia requested the United Nations Security Council to convene a meeting to discuss the damage to the pipelines that both Europe and Russia spent billions to build.
What are the Nord Stream pipelines?
- The Nord Stream pipelines have been at the centre of geopolitical tensions in recent months as Russia cut gas supplies to Europe in suspected retaliation against Western sanctions following its invasion of Ukraine.
- The $7.1 (€7.4) billion Nord Stream 1 subsea pipeline, having two lines running alongside one another, has been operational since 2011, and is the largest single supply route for Russian gas to Europe.
- The 1,224 km-long lines run under the Baltic Sea, starting from near S.t Petersburg in Russia and Lubmin in eastern Germany, and have a combined capacity of 55 billion cubic metres (bcm).
- The Russian state-owned gas company Gazprom has a majority ownership in the pipeline, and while it was running at just 20% of its capacity since the Russia-Ukraine conflict began, the company, in early September fully cut gas flows from the pipeline on the pretext of maintenance. While 40% of Europe’s pipeline gas came from Russia before the war, the number now stands at just 9%.
Nord Stream 2:
- The construction of the $11 billion-worth Nord Stream 2, which also has two parallel lines along the first one, was completed in 2021 but needed German approval to start supply.
- Once thispipeline became functional, Nord Stream 1 and 2 could deliver a combined total of 110 billion cubic metres of gas a year to Europe for at least 50 years.
- Germany, however, suspended the approval days before Russia sent its troops to Ukraine, meaning the pipeline never began commercial operations.
- While both pipelines are not currently running commercially, they had millions of cubic metres of gas stored in them.
What will be the impact of the leaks?
- Since gas flows to Europe through the two Nord Streams were already halted before the leaks, there will not be a new or immediate impact when it comes to the supply.
- With the timeframe for repairs being uncertain and all the stored gas set to escape as a result of the leak, the pipelines are unlikely to provide any gas to Europe through the forthcoming winter months, even if the political will to resume supply was found.
- Depending on the intensity of the damage caused by these ruptures, permanent closure of the expensive Nord Stream lines was also a possibility.
- European gas prices immediately spiked after the reports of the leaks emerged.
Environmental impact:
- As for the environmental impact of the gas leaks, methane is a large component of natural gas and is also a potent greenhouse gas which is the second-largest contributor to climate change after CO2.
- The commercial methane-measuring satellite firm GHGSat as saying that a "conservative estimate" based on available data suggested the leaks together were releasing more than 500 metric tons of methane per hour when first breached, with the flow decreasing over time.
What have international authorities said about who is behind the leaks?
- Ukraine called the leaks a “terrorist attack” and an “act of aggression towards the EU” planned by Russia. Incidentally, Russia on Thursday said that the leaks were an act of “terorrism” possibly by a state-actor.
- While the EU and North Atlantic Treaty Organisation called the leaks acts of sabotage, they did not name a country.
- Russia said that the gas leaks fell under territoriesthat were completely in control of U.S. intelligence agencies, adding that it had seen the profits of the U.S. Liquified Natural Gas (LNG) providers increase rapidly since they started pumping more of it into shortage-hit Europe.
- Before the Russian invasion, U.S. President promised that “there will no longer be a Nord Stream 2” if Russia invaded Ukraine and in September, his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin said in response to Europe’s plan to put price caps on Russian oil and gas exports, that he would not hesitate to rip all energy supply contracts and let Europe “freeze” this winter.
